The Three Remarkable Daughters of the Old Took: Female Hobbit Adventure
- Miriam Ellis
- 11 hours ago
- 5 min read
If only he had been given Bilbo's long years, J.R.R. Tolkien could have written an unforgettable female hobbit adventure, but at least we know that such quests took place. In the opening pages of The Hobbit, an excited Mr. Baggins exclaims,
"Not the Gandalf who was responsible for so many quiet lads and lasses going off into the Blue for mad adventures? Anything from climbing trees to visiting elves - or sailing in ships, sailing to other shores!" (emphasis mine)
This passage invigorates me as much as it does Bilbo. Given the Wandering Wizard's close friendship with the Tooks of Great Smials, I feel we can dare to connect some dots, and I longed to capture some of this wonderful established lore in a painting.
Family trees and friends
Bilbo's grandfather, Thain Gerontius Took, was Gandalf's very particular friend, and the wizard had a high regard for the Old Took's daughter, Belladonna, who would grow up to be Bilbo's mother. Gerontius let Gandalf set fireworks off in his garden at Midsummer's Eve parties. In fact, you can see the same turf-roofed porch in this painting as is seen in the new piece. Gandalf was the honored guest of this old and spacious smial, and we know he expressed his regard for the Old Took with at least one magical present - a pair of enchanted diamond studs. Both Bilbo and Frodo's great tales are deeply rooted here in the Tookland.
Why remarkable?
When I asked myself about the nature of the missing story that resulted in the Thain's lasses becoming known as the "three remarkable daughters of the Old Took", the most lore-based answer seems to me to be found in "An Unexpected Party". A narrative emerges of Gandalf's summer visits to this part of the Westfarthing. Perhaps on one of these occasions, Gandalf took Gerontius' lasses up a grand oak overlooking Great Smials. This would have been considered an act of significant courage, given hobbits' general mistrust of heights. In a country place, such an adventure could well have earned the children a legendary title.
Up here in the leafy branches, we see the ancient wanderer at his most loving, regaling the little lasses with his famous fairy-stories of "...dragons and goblins and giants and the rescue of princesses and the unexpected luck of widows' sons." I will be presenting at the Prancing Pony Podcast Moot this week on the subject of hobbit folklore, and I delight to think about just how marvelous Gandalf's storytelling was to be remembered with such animation by Bilbo.
I hope you enjoy this glimpse of Gandalf at his kindliest and most relaxed, resting from his endless-seeming Road here amongst the Little Folk whom he cherished. The trust and friendship he earned in the Tookland can be seen in the way these tiny companions have wreathed his hat in wildflowers as they've gone roving up a tall hill above their home. Perhaps when Billbo climbs the oak in Mirkwood, he is merely following in his brave mother's footsteps?
A ring of names
These aren't just any hobbit lasses. At right, Belladonna, listens alertly while Frodo's wistful little future grandmother, Mirabella, rests on a branch at her side. This is S.R. 1282, and Belladonna is just 30 years old, but from these two hobbits will come the Ringbearers of epic fame. Donnamira completes the trio, gazing dreamily into the distance as she listens to "tales from the perilous realm" told by a great traveler and an unsuspected missionary from Valinor. Imagine that!
While we are on the topic of Ringbearers, have you ever noticed that these sisters' names form a kind of fairy-ring? The last element of each name becomes the first element of the next, in a circle. I find this very fitting, given the (false) rumor that the curious Tooks had fairy ancestry. There is something different about them, and I hoped this glimpse of them might give you a sense of how it could feel to come upon a 3-foot tall hobbit lass in her element in the green countryside. I think she would have much of the "ordinary everyday sort" of the magic of the natural world.
My friend and fellow artist, Matěj Čadil, also recently pointed out to me that there is an alternating pattern of "H" names and "I" names for the brothers in this particular family, too. I expect they were all rather remarkable.
The importance of female hobbit adventure
I was about five years old when my father, Stephen, first read me The Hobbit. I'm so grateful to him for sharing the books he loved with me, and he has a Gandalf-ian reading voice that makes one listen to every word. I see a little of my own childhood in this painting when I remember those first hearings of Tolkien's genius.
From the beginning, I identified with Bilbo, and have wanted to be a hobbit-friend ever since. Bilbo's gender was no obstacle to me, nor was Frodo's, when bedtime stories moved on to the more serious journey of The Lord of the Rings a couple of years later. I knew who my friends were in Middle-earth. I knew who I wanted to be and to meet when my family went on walking-parties all over the "green hill country" surrounding our home. I became rather elvish as a young lady, but in my formative years, I was a hobbit at heart, and always will be.
My father thought I was important enough to hear the best books. He knew I could enjoy these stories, and he devoted hours of his very limited free time to reading to me. We communicate value to girls by including them in meaningful undertakings, and there was never any thought that I couldn't be part of the Fellowship because I was female. What a joy it has been to get to meet so many women Tolkien readers as I continue to paint from the legendarium. And I cheer for all the fathers and mothers and relatives and friends who are reading these books to the girls in their care. Our participation, our voices, our thoughts, our arts are part of the Music!
I think it is important for little girls to feel that they, too, are on their own adventures. Given J.R.R. Tolkien's writing of a character like Éowyn, think what he might have done had he been given the time to write a quest for Fíriel Fairbairn, the daughter of Elanor Gamgee. Perhaps Fíriel would have been the one to break with Undertowers' custom, climb the White Towers and look out upon the sea, as Gil-galad and Elendil did in ancientry? We can never know what the Professor might have envisioned for us, but to me, there's satisfaction in the certainty that hobbit lasses rambled with Gandalf. It's a guarantee that their experiences would have been worth reading about.
Can you see potential in Lobelia Sackville-Baggins' courage, Mrs. Cotton's pity, and Rose Cotton's foresightedness? There was hobbit greatness in them, I am sure, and this is a message every girl deserves to hear about herself. If you've got little ones to teach, please share this video short with them, and encourage them to dream of beautiful possibilities.
